[General] Morality tale stiff with Schadenfruede, etc...

[holdenenglish]

Dear teachers

I am reading a crime novel, and one passage reads:

"She became a morality tale stiff with Schadenfreude, and so many columnists made allusion to Icarus that Private Eye ran a special column. And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalists and nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already."


I don't really understand what the following phrases mean so I am seeking advice from you:

1) a morality tale stiff with Schadenfreude
2) made allusion to Icarus
3) the frenzy wore itself into staleness

Regards

Holden

 

[emsr2d2]

Dear teachers

I am reading a crime novel, and one passage reads:

"She became a morality tale stiff with Schadenfreude, and so many columnists made allusion to Icarus that Private Eye ran a special column. And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalists and nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already."


I don't really understand what the following phrases mean so I am seeking advice from you:

1) a morality tale stiff with Schadenfreude
2) made allusion to Icarus
3) the frenzy wore itself into staleness



Regards

Holden

1) ... a morality tale which contains a lot of Schadenfreude.
2) Do you know who "Icarus" was? Do you understand "to make allusion to" or "to allude to"?
3) Which words are confusing you?

 

[Tdol]

It was a story with a moral that people enjoyed telling because of the pleasure in her fall, and so many of them used the story of Icarus (who flew too close to the sun and fell) that a satirical magazine collected them to show how unoriginal journalists are. After a while, people got bored reading and telling the story.

 

[PeterValk]

Not a teacher, but:

"And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalists and nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already."

Are you sure this is an exact quote?
It doesn't seem grammatically correct to me. But I've been wrong before.
Either it's a bad quote or a correct quote from a bad writer.

 

[emsr2d2]

Not a teacher, but:

"And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalists and nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already."

Are you sure this is an exact quote?
It doesn't seem grammatically correct to me. But I've been wrong before.
Either it's a bad quote or a correct quote from a bad writer.

I would guess that the "and" you underlined should say "had".

 

[PeterValk]

"but that too much had been said already"

And "but that" should probably be "because"? Then it would make sense.
I would still like to know where this quote came from.

 

[emsr2d2]

"but that too much had been said already"

And "but that" should probably be "because"? Then it would make sense.
I would still like to know where this quote came from.

"But that" is archaic. See the first result here.

 

[PeterValk]

Meaning?
That it should not be used in modern English?

 

[holdenenglish]

Dear all, sorry my fault. "and" should be "had", and the exact quote is from "The Cuckoo's Calling", a crime fiction written by JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith):

“And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalist had nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already.”

Regards

Holden

 

[SoothingDave]

"But that" is archaic. See the first result here.

I don't think that is a "but that." It's a "but" followed by a "that too much..."